Zions Bancorp (NASDAQ:ZION) – Equities researchers at Piper Jaffray Companies upped their FY2018 EPS estimates for shares of Zions Bancorp in a note issued to investors on Sunday, October 28th. Piper Jaffray Companies analyst K. Barker now expects that the bank will post earnings per share of $4.05 for the year, up from their prior forecast of $3.91.

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Several other brokerages also recently commented on ZION. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Zions Bancorp from $55.00 to $53.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 24th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Zions Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $51.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 24th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Zions Bancorp from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 10th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Zions Bancorp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $49.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 23rd. Finally, BidaskClub upgraded shares of Zions Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. The stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.19.

Shares of ZION opened at $47.58 on Wednesday. Zions Bancorp has a one year low of $43.50 and a one year high of $59.19. The company has a market cap of $9.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.64, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Zions Bancorp (NASDAQ:ZION) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 22nd. The bank reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.08. Zions Bancorp had a net margin of 26.57% and a return on equity of 11.84%. The business had revenue of $701.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.87 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.72 earnings per share.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 21st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 13th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.52%. Zions Bancorp’s payout ratio is presently 41.96%.

In other Zions Bancorp news, insider Leeanne B. Linderman sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.10, for a total transaction of $240,500.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Rebecca K. Robinson sold 6,361 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.75, for a total transaction of $341,903.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 17,945 shares of company stock worth $938,277. Insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Piedmont Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Zions Bancorp in the second quarter worth $122,000. NumerixS Investment Technologies Inc bought a new stake in shares of Zions Bancorp in the second quarter worth $158,000. Huntington National Bank grew its stake in shares of Zions Bancorp by 2,443.4% in the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 3,281 shares of the bank’s stock worth $164,000 after purchasing an additional 3,152 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in shares of Zions Bancorp by 1,637.5% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 3,475 shares of the bank’s stock worth $183,000 after purchasing an additional 3,275 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Personal Financial Services bought a new stake in shares of Zions Bancorp in the third quarter worth $191,000. 94.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Zions Bancorp

Zions Bancorporation, National Association provides various banking and related services primarily in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The company offers community banking services, such as small and medium-sized business and corporate banking; commercial and residential development, construction, and term lending; retail banking; treasury cash management and related products and services; residential mortgage servicing and lending services; trust and wealth management services; capital markets services, including municipal finance advisory and underwriting; and investment services.